By Bradley Wedlake

Synopsis  Star Wars: A New Hope opens with a Rebel ship being boarded by the tyrannical Darth Vader. The plot then follows the life of a simple farm boy, Luke Skywalker, as he and his newly met allies (Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, C-3PO, R2-D2) attempt to rescue a Rebel leader, Princess Leia, from the clutches of the Empire. The conclusion is culminated as the Rebels, including Skywalker and flying ace Wedge Antilles make an attack on the Empire's most powerful and ominous weapon, the Death Star.

Genre The Science Fiction genre is incredibly present to the point of cliché: Set primarily in space, futuristic technology (despite being set in the past?), as well as frequent appearances aliens and robots. There is also elements of action: young hero accompanied by dashing rogue saves princess from villain then leads fight against the bad guys.

Narrative  Luke Skywalker, an innocent farm boy who just wants to see the stars, is an incredibly relatable character for the audience as he is mostly unaware to the horrors of the universe and is living a day to day life. His journey throughout the film is of self discovery as he is thrown headfirst into the world of a Jedi, as well as aiding the rebellion. His character at the end of the film is brave and courageous as he shoots the reactor leading to the death star’s explosion after engaging in a large space battle. This is not the same Luke who we see searching for his uncle’s approval at the start of the film.  Han Solo, an arrogant bounty hunter who’s primary aim is to make money. His brutish shoot-first attitude is in stark contrast to Luke who hadn’t handled a weapon prior to meeting Obi-wan. Han travels with his Wookie companion, Chewbaca which shows he is not completely heartless as they have a mutual bond, and i’m sure Han would be devastated if ‘Chewy’ died. Han’s action at the end of the film, to save Luke from Vader, show’s his character has gone on a journey as well, as he was previously seen leaving prior to the attack after claiming his bounty. This shows that his time aiding the protagonist’s helped his character become less selfish.

Representation  Locations in the film are meant to reflect real life places i.e. Tattoine is obviously a country in Africa close to the Sahara desert, Alderaan has a possibly European appeal with it’s (alleged) green pastures. The Death Star is used to emphasise to the audience the science fiction setting.  The film has a primarily white, male cast as the only black character in the original saga is introduced in Episode V, and Princess Leia is only one of two women in the whole original saga. This lack of appropriate representation has caused controversy as there is a huge variety of alien characters but no variety with the Humans.

Audience  The film had huge global appeal and it launched the second highest grossing franchise of all time. But the majority of cinema-goers were male due to the release of “Grease” around the same time, which had a primarily female audience. The film continued the emergence of big-budget science fiction films e.g. Close Encounters of the Third kind, and also became a basis of influence itself.

Institution  Lifetime domestic gross: $460,998,  Worldwide total gross: $775,398,007  Release date: May 25 th 1977  Runtime: 2 hours and 1 minute  Production Budget: $11 million  Distributor: Fox